Sara Evans and the crew at Backyard Chickens for Mount Clemens, MI do not mind ruffling a few tail feathers.

After receiving a violation notice from the city of Mount Clemens Jan. 30 regarding six chickens she’d been raising for the past two years, Evans relocated her brood to a friend’s farm in Chesterfield Township.

Like a burgeoning group of people around the country, the mother-of-two is working toward a life of sustainability. In addition to raising chickens, Evans grows her own tomatoes, broccoli, lettuce and squash in her back yard.

On June 2, she and other like-minded residents used the comments section of the Mount Clemens City Commission meeting to raise the issue of updating the city ordinace to allow backyard chickens.

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“It was the first step to getting this on the agenda,” said Evans, whose 7-year-old daughter Arwen Bava enjoys painting the claws of “pet” chickens and holds them on her lap while watching TV.

“There’s a lot of ignorance out there about chickens,” said Evans who in addition to feeding her family with the eggs her hens produce, shares them with grateful neighbors and also sells them. “For example, “it’s not true that chickens attract rats.

Sustainability advocates like Evans are concerned about food security/insecurity, resource conservation and buying local. This focus is evidenced nationally by the growth in local farmers markets: between 1994 and 2011, farmers markets grew from 1,755 to 7,175, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

In the same vein, health-conscious consumers are disturbed by the proliferation of antibiotics, growth hormones, pesticides, herbicides, genetic engineering and the age of the chickens they are eating.

A workshop on local zoning and the chicken coop drew a healthy crowd this February at the Macomb Food Collaborative’s Feb. 14 “All About Food: Farm To Fork” conference at the Macomb Intermediate School District. “Each year, more people are interested in growing their own food,” said Jean Persely MFC conference planner. This means different things to different people, from growing vegetables, to food preservation and raising farm animals, “Not everyone can have a goat, pig or cow in their yard. Chickens are small, easy to care for and can lay many eggs. This provides families with a protein source at a very low cost.”

Establishing and maintaining a chicken coop, however, is not the workshop’s only goal.

“People need to know what their rights are, as well as the restrictions that may be in place,” Persely stressed.

“If you don’t like the rules…you can advocate with your community to have them updated and changed.”

But for Mount Clemens residents such as Evans, the road to chicken-raising may not be straight and narrow. The city commission nixed a similar proposal two years ago.

“The last time we looked into this, we found that many yards in Mount Clemens are fairly small,” Dempsey said. “We don’t want chickens on top of neighbors who may not be enthusiastic about them. The other problem: once you open the door, where does it end? Someone will say – ‘a cow isn’t any louder than a chicken. Why can’t I keep a cow?”

One related request involved a goat.

“The goat is gone now,” Dempsey said with a laugh.

Mike Beers, a board member with the Michigan Small Farm Council and administrator for its Facebook page, is ready for the battle.

“New and different people are bringing it up now, and the overall climate is different,” said Beers, who is in the process of moving from Mount Clemens to Chesterfield Township. “I always feel that it is important to fight for our rights.”

“I love being in the city and everything about it – but I love nature, too,” said Evans. She is looking to start a Community Supported Agriculture cooperative, and potentially sell eggs and vegetables at a local farmers markets. “But if Mount Clemens wants to hold onto young family’s like ours it needs to consider making some changes. We’ll move on if we have to.”

About the Author

Maryanne Macleod previously covered local food, health and parenting, and was the community engagement editor for The Macomb Daily, the Daily Tribune, the Advisor and Source and The Voice News. Reach the author at Maryanne.macleod@beamont.org
or follow Maryanne on Twitter: @MaryanneMacLeod.